Former President George H.W. Bush’s Casket Arrives at US Capitol

WASHINGTON, Dec 4: Former President George H.W. Bush's casket arrived to the US Capitol, where he will lie in state until his funeral service on Wednesday.

A US military plane that often serves as Air Force One carried the coffin from the state of Texas and landed in Washington, DC earlier on Monday. Bush, who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993, will be honored with a state funeral on Wednesday, which President Donald Trump has proclaimed as a national day of mourning. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. EST [4 p.m. GMT] at the Washington National Cathedral.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are expected to attend the ceremony, according to a White House statement.Bush died on Friday at the age of 94. Bush was born on June 12, 1924 in Massachusetts. He studied at Phillips Academy Andover boarding school and enlisted in the US Navy at the age of 18. Bush received a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery when fighting on the Pacific front of the World War II.

After the war, Bush graduated from Yale university and started his path as a politician. In his early political career, Bush served as the US ambassador to the United Nations, the US envoy to China and the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Bush lost the 1980 presidential campaign and occupied the position of the vice president in 1981-1989 with Ronald Reagan as the head of state. In 1988, Bush beat Michael Dukakis in the nationwide presidential election.

The following year in 1989, Bush held a summit with then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta, an event that marked the end of the Cold War, and two years later the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. (UNI)